Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-02-01
THE SPECTRE BUGGY.
\ WEIRD APPARITION, STARTLING AND
STRANGE,
TIE Masked Buggy and Brown Horse That Aston
ISL st. Louis People, and then Dissolve Like
the Parsons 0ae-HOrSe Shay.
81. LDUis GiObs Democrat.

Pine street has q mystery. 1t has pos
scSSed it for several weeks, and the older it
gets the deeper it grows. Four weeks ago
the mystery received only passing atten
ton: to-day it is full of absorbed and
absorbing interest, and when dusk begins
10 pull down the mantel of night, every
man, woman and child ON Pine
street. between Twenty-eighth street and
Compton avenue, isanxiOus to know If this
mystery is going to maintain its record
by appearing ut the times and in the
places TO which it has thus far become ac-
custOmed. The mystery iSa masked buggy,
drawn by a brown horse. 1t j. seen daily,
ut nightfall, passing slowly from Twenty
eighth street to Compton avenue. The
horse never moves faster than a walk, and
never passes west of the corner OF Pine
street and Compton y u IS
made to the north on Compton avenue and
in the middle of the block horse and
vehicle disappear. IL is an ordinary look
ing buggy, suggestive of a doctors rig, and
is ALWAYS covered in front, an Oil-clOth eur
tain stretching from the top of the vehicle
over the dashboard and falling ut the sides
- as to completely hide its interior. There
are glass openings crossing the curtains,
and there is 4 flap through which the'Ilnes
extend. Ii Is a matter OF runOr that the
hand of q woman has been seen to appear
ut this aperture, but all attempts to lden-
tirv the person who made this discovery or
made the statement have been unaNalling.
The only substantial testimony that the
iloBc- Democratic reporter could secure tend
ell to show that the buggy held no occupant,
or, at n rate, no occupant that was WISH
bic To mortal eyes. No body knows where
the horse and buggy m from, and no
body sees where they go. The mystery
cannot he traced belOw-twcnty-eiSht street,
or a halfa block beyond Olive, on Compton
avenue. 1t never stops or deNlateS from
its course, and, though occasionally other
vehicles nave brushed it very closely, and
nave seemed 10 run their wheels IN the
same rut as the wheels Of the buggy, both
have passed tree as air, without 4 shock OF
the slightest suggestion of a collision. And
vet children have climbed up the back OF
the vehicle and grown people, too, have
clambered in its rear and peered through
the little round glass in the back curtain
so that the buggy would appear to be a re
Hhty and not Il shade. 1t possesses queer
| properties, though, and certainly some as
trail qualities, to be able TO pass through
such dense material as the wheel OF a Goa
| wagon, for that is what it has been seen Il
| Ito, apparently melting into and blending
| with the side of the heavy vehicle as they
passed each other.
These are all simple statements OF iact'
"a mere repetition of the words and Ian
guage used by Pine-streeters in descrlbin!
and commenting on the EOur-wheeled ant
brown horse mystery. 1t may have eX
isted longer than four weeks, but 1t wa
not noticed SO as to occasion talk unit
about the middle of last December. Al
old lady, whom an infrmity confined I
an upper room, one evening saw the bugg
and a heavy coal wagon moving toward
each other in n threatening manner. In
near side of the wagon going east was I
exactly the same line as the OFF wheels q
the buggy, and rs the teamSter was ma
king his mules move pretty lively the i'm
minent collision forbOded partial destruC
ton to the lighter vehicle. The old lad,
looked on with horror, and gave a screaI
rs the vehicles came together.
What's the matter, MOTHER asked he
married daughter who was IN anothe
room, and the daughter ran to her mother
side.
oOh. myp' said the old lady, trying I
catch her breath. That coal wagon RAJ
into that buggy-but there seems to hav
been no harm done-the buggy IS gOln
right along a. if nothing had happened.
And so il was. The daughter looked an
saw the coal wagon bowling down I'll
street, and the little brown horse pushln
~leisurly toward the west, with its bugg
following calmly in it's wake. That wa
the first authenticated attention that tn
horse and buggy had attracted to then
selves. They have been seen every On
since, and incidents of the kind here mel
toned have multiplied until now ther
can be found a dozen witnesses on eac
block who are willing to testify to th
ghoStlineSs of the mystery, n~Otwithstand
ing its springs and box and back are 8
palpable and feel as material as the sam
parts of other buggies.
The story of the sO-callod collision wit
the coal wagon and the regularity of tn
rigs appearance began to circulate throug
the ne~ighborhOOd within a week after tn
) first occurrence, and soon every able-bOdie,
tongue along Pine street was engaged /
! giving the mystery a boom. Growing chi
dren were instructed to climb up on tn
/ vehicle and with their quick eyes sean th
interior, which they did; but they say
: nothing. Smart young men volunteers,
their services and displayed their agility a
the buggy's end; but they saw no NOR
than the children had seen. A peculiarit
of the horse and buggy, and a characters
tic that deepens and brOadens the mystery